Category: Spain jazz music

Jazz music, unlike many other forms of music, requires a photographer to be very careful in how they do their work. Jazz events are known for their tricky interior lighting, small groups of people, and intimate gatherings that are mostly indoors.

That is why, if you ever want to go and take photos of a jazz event, here are some tips you should keep in mind:

Be Mindful of the Light

As mentioned at the start, jazz events are notorious for their dim and moody lighting especially when they’re indoors. This lighting plays a big role in creating the ambiance of jazz music to be played and enjoyed. Therefore, you need to take photos in a way that does justice to both the mood of the place and also provides noise-free results.

The most important element to achieve this is what lens you use. Use a prime lens with a wide aperture to capture the maximum amount of light at fairly fast shutter speeds. Without a good lens, you won’t get very nice-looking images even if you take HDR photos with the best HDR software you can find.

Keep it Light

To capture all the action, you’ll have to move around quite a bit. So it’s best to use a lightweight setup. Use a mirrorless camera over a DSLR if you can. It’ll give you the same results for much lesser weight. Another piece of kit to take along for more mobility is to replace your tripod with a monopod. It’ll help you stabilize your photos and videos while removing the need to create special space for it in a crowded setting.

Get Close

To capture the real mood of a jazz event, you should also focus on taking some portrait shots of both the singers and the audience. Capture the feelings on people’s faces, capture the way a musician is playing the instrument. It’s advised to take along a specialized portrait lens with a wide aperture to achieve these kinds of photos.

With these three tips, you will see how much better your jazz photos come out. You won’t have to deal with noisy, uninspiring photos anymore so make sure you follow these tips whenever you’re planning to photograph a jazz event next.

Jazz as a music culture originated from New Orleans. The African American communities are its forefathers. The genre hit off in Spain after being infatuated with Dixieland and New Orleans jazz. Spanish jazz evolved into many other styles, influence by visiting Americans. Barcelona, one of the global hubs of music, hosts awesome music festivals such as Sonar. The city has become the second home to lively jazz music. The music festivals here invite a few of the biggest names from jazz world. These are the six upcoming jazz artists to watch out for, next time you visit the Catalan capital.

Albert Cirera

The AMJM award winner adopted saxophone as his prime instrument after being a trained violinist for years. His brand of music contains undertones of the proper classical jazz. He occasionally explores the experimental sounds too.

Marco Mezquida

Popular for his piano solos, Marco is a composer and a music teacher. The Jazz Music Association of Catalonia voted him three times for the Musician of the Year award.

Martin Leiton

Being involved in tons of Barcelona’s local projects, Martin is surprisingly a self-taught musician. His allegiance constantly shifted between piano and bass guitar in last few years.

Octavio Bugni

The jack of all trades – musician, composer and producer – released his first ever solo, Cruzar Mundos. It did enough rounds in social media circles. He lists Oscar Peterson, Nat King Cole and Stephane Grappelli among his role models.

Carlos Falanga

He hails from Argentina, but he is Barcelona based. The debut album of this drummer, Gran Coral opened to positive reviews. He travelled most of Europe in his 15 years musician stint.

Jaume Llombart

Trained at the Catalan College of Music itself, Jaume Llombart is a rising star in international Jazz scene. He is a regular performer across Catalonia along with the Jaume Llombart Sextet.